Market Analysis with Natural Language Processing and Gen AI
Harnessing AI to Uncover Insights and Trends in Search Data
What people search for on Google reveals a great deal about their lives, and the way people search is evolving rapidly.
Voice searches, IoT, geolocated queries, and “near me” searches have made us accustomed to interacting with machines—our smartphones, smartwatches, and virtual assistants.
This shift has radically transformed search language, moving away from a mechanical sequence of keywords to a more conversational and human-like dialogue.
Understanding these transformations in search behavior and user intent, as well as being able to timely and proactively identify major online market trends, has become essential.
But how can we process an ever-growing volume of data while decoding colloquial phrases and natural language? This is where Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning come to the aid of marketing.
NLP: What Is Natural Language Processing?
Natural Language Processing (NLP) is one of the most widely used AI applications in recent years. It encompasses algorithms capable of analyzing, interpreting, and understanding human natural language.
The dialogue between humans and machines is complex, involving elements like phonetics, morphology, syntax, semantics, slang, and context—all aspects that go beyond the simple sequence of words and their straightforward meanings.
Computational linguistics is the science that studies how human language works to create programs executable by machines.
NLP breaks down messages into primary units (words), analyzing their context and sentiment to provide increasingly accurate responses and results—a true interpretation of the user’s query.
Analyzing Searches and Market Trends
Analyzing user searches and online trends has become more complex. It’s not just about understanding what people search for—seasonality, patterns, peaks, and declines—but also how they conduct their searches.
Mapping a large volume of unclean data, made even more impenetrable by the use of natural language, requires the deployment of Artificial Intelligence.
For example, analyzing emerging travel trends on Google can reveal how Italians are planning their summer vacations. Frequently identifying the most searched destinations enables businesses to:
- Make strategic decisions
- Optimize search campaign management
- Dynamically shape editorial strategies
Leveraging Technology for Trend Analysis
Using technological solutions like our Trend AI platform allows businesses to monitor a significant list of destinations, along with variations (e.g., “flights to {destination},” “hotels in {destination}”). This platform provides a dashboard of updated search trends each morning, complete with alert systems when growth thresholds are exceeded.
The benefits are twofold:
- Significant reduction in research time compared to traditional Google Trends approaches.
- Discovery of previously inaccessible search trends through a broader scope of analysis.
NLP’s Role in Trend Detection
NLP aggregates searches by focusing not on single queries but on search intent or categories. This enables more precise and contextual trend identification, providing actionable insights and strategic advantages.